1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to managing query results and, more particularly, to ordering data records contained in a query result obtained in response to execution of a query against a database.
2. Description of the Related Art
Databases are computerized information storage and retrieval systems. A relational database management system is a computer database management system (DBMS) that uses relational techniques for storing and retrieving data. The most prevalent type of database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. A distributed database is one that can be dispersed or replicated among different points in a network. An object-oriented programming database is one that is congruent with the data defined in object classes and subclasses.
Regardless of the particular architecture, a DBMS can be structured to support a variety of different types of operations for a requesting entity (e.g., an application, the operating system or an end user). Such operations can be configured to retrieve, add, modify and delete information being stored and managed by the DBMS. Standard database access methods support these operations using high-level query languages, such as the Structured Query Language (SQL). The term “query” denominates a set of commands that cause execution of operations for processing data from a stored database. For instance, SQL supports four types of query operations, i.e., SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE. A SELECT operation retrieves data from a database, an INSERT operation adds new data to a database, an UPDATE operation modifies data in a database and a DELETE operation removes data from a database.
Processing queries and query results can consume significant system resources, particularly processor resources. Furthermore, one difficulty when dealing with large query results, i.e., query results including a large amount of data, is to identify relevant information therefrom.
A number of techniques have been employed to deal with this difficulty. For instance, query languages generally provide some functionality for ordering query results so that retrieval of relevant information can be simplified. In SQL, for example, an ORDER BY clause can be used to order rows of a given query result presented in a tabular form according to an ascending or descending order of data contained in a user-selected column of the query result. Furthermore, a given query result can be represented graphically to outline the information conveyed by the query result. However, such techniques still require a significant amount of user interaction to identify the relevant information, especially from large query results. Thus, these techniques are an ineffective means to support users in easily and rapidly identifying relevant information from query results.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient technique for presenting query results to users in order to simplify identification of relevant information therefrom.